A Toast For Your Kidneys

CAROUSEL: A woman cries after identifying the body of a relative which was retrieved from the waters off Mariveles township, Bataan province 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of Manila, Philippines on Thursday July 15, 2010 following Typhoon Conson lashing into the main Philippine island of Luzon.

A drink a day may do your kidneys more good than harm, rather than the other way around.

Although some previous studies show that alcohol use may be harmful to the kidneys and increase the risk of kidney failure, a large new study indicates that the reverse might be true -- at least when alcohol is consumed in moderation.

If those results hold up to further scrutiny, researchers say preventing kidney failure may be yet another benefit of drinking alcohol in moderation, in addition to other recently discovered perks, such as reducing the risk of heart disease and stroke.

Moderation is defined as no more than two alcoholic drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women. — A "standard drink" is defined as 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits.

A New Benefit for Drinking in Moderation?

The study followed more than 11,000 healthy men for 14 years and found that men who averaged at least seven drinks per week had a 30% lower risk of having elevated blood creatinine levels, a marker of kidney dysfunction, compared with men who had one or fewer drinks per week.

A similar protective effect of moderate alcohol use was found for another marker of kidney health known as the glomerular filtration rate (GFR), which measures the normal filtering capacity of the kidneys.

The results appear in the May 9 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Researchers say the findings are contrary to previous studies that have shown alcohol use may increase the risk of kidney failure due to alcohol's effect on increasing blood pressure. — Uncontrolled blood pressure is a risk factor for kidney failure.